First things first: hello, welcome. I'm The Chosen Storyteller, and I've been playing Sims anything since I was a kid. This was meant to happen. I'm so anxious. Help.

The sims in this story are based off two families I made in 4 whose lives entwine. There's nothing too deep to say about them because obviously 4 doesn't allow many traits for characterization. Sooo... I'm portraying them as I played. I'm doing my best. There's also another sim I created who will have a recurring role. Also Bob and Eliza Pancakes appear as both families befriended and subsequently have had their properties stalked by them. The house mentioned is something I designed myself, and I hope my descriptions can help you picture it... At least vaguely.

With all that said, I hope you find some enjoyment out of this.

DISCLAIMER TIME – "I refuse to admit who has the rights."

( A Sims fanfiction typed entirely by The Chosen Storyteller )

Secrets Of Willow Creek

Prologue

Mathias Thorn stopped aging after this twentieth birthday, as per usual for vampires. His bloodline consisted of at least two generations, both fortunate enough to have mortal features to blend into society. While he was "cursed" to not be able to see his reflection, he had always been complimented on his long blonde hair and forest green eyes. His smooth, very lightly tanned skin that must have been lovingly cared for if you asked the random women and sometimes men who tried to chat him up. No one suspected him, nor his grandparents or father of being vampires.

Unfortunately, Willow Creek with its pleasant reputations means that most "abnormal" life forms aren't spoken of kindly. Aliens and Vampires, to be specific. Even though both could fit into society just fine, or so the stories of other towns like Oasis Springs go. But in Willow Creek, one vampire who's been locked out of their house and is too weak to change into a bat to fly through the window means they have to grab a quick drop of plasma from the unlucky passerby... Then the whole group is branded for life. You don't see such things happening to mermaids or sims with magical abilities.

Mathias' mother was, of course, a mermaid herself and her favorite spot to go for a swim at was the local pool. Aside from a few second glances from new residents, no one seemed to have a problem with the only mermaid in town freely splashing around humming and singing in her normal form. A woman who just so happened to have red fish scales all over her body and a tail replacing legs. She always expressed sympathy for her husband and son, but it wasn't as though anything could be done about being "born" without a heartbeat.

The only question Mathias ever had in the back of his mind was: how could this relationship happen? It always felt awkward to ask his own parents, so he never did. Not even as a curious child. His best guesses were either an arrangement to see if a vampire and mermaid hybrid could be made – which didn't work – or two kinds of sims just fell in love and that was that. He would never know.

Mathias strolled into the living room to see his father still curled up on the couch, sound asleep in the uniform for his store. That stupid Simder movie was playing for the fourth time in a week on TV, muted but Mathias could recall every piece of eye-rolling dialogue.

Mother's picture was on the floor again, face up as if it was planted there on purpose to greet Father when he was finished gaining his energy back. It was obviously taken when she was pregnant with Mathias, it was taken from far away and she was posing for it by leaning against the fireplace making a waving gesture with a smile on her face. Vampire babies had an unfortunate reputation of making pregnancy agonizing hell for mortal sims – One wouldn't believe that if they looked at this picture.

"Where are you..." Were the only coherent words Mathias could make out from his father's sleep babbling. His theory was that he was still dreaming of her.

Mathias didn't know just how much energy his father used last night, but he clearly needed to sleep in. He circled the furniture swiftly, making no noise as he approached the mantle and placed the picture back in its proper place. Right between the decidedly gothic wedding picture with an edgy black and white filter, and that one stupid little drawing Mathias once made of his parents as flowers.

The doorbell instantly rung and destroyed any of the gloom. Mathias sighed, transformed to a bat and flew to the door quickly while his father was groggily hissing about noise. Mathias returned to his normal form in record time, hurriedly swinging the door open only to be pulled into an embrace and have a pair of familiar lips press against his cheek.

"Good morning, Babe!"

Even though Mathias' eyes still needed to adjust to just a bit of sunlight now blasting through the door and shining upon all the dim candlelight, he knew who that was. Brandon. Brandon couldn't possibly know about his vampirism; that hadn't exactly come up... Even though it's been precisely one year since they became a couple following a friendship that honestly nothing but flirting and ignoring why relationships with other sims never worked out.

Brandon stepped over the threshold – skinny and recently obsessively tanned arms full of his boyfriend – and now in the dim house Mathias could note his appearance better. He'd put orange streaks in his shaggy hair, still sported his same red glasses and insisted that green wolf print t-shirt was badass even when worn with the most non-threatening beige shorts and beach sandals in existence.

"Babe, listen, you know I don't like to encourage gossip-" Brandon looked over Mathias' shoulder at the sound of his father getting off the sofa and groaning tiredly. "Hey, Mister Thorn! Been kicking ass at the store all night?!"

Mathias was fairly certain he saw his father flip him off in the corner of his eye, although Brandon just laughed it off even though... He never seemed to realize the good terms they were apparently on was all in his head. It was the wolf shirt. Had to be.

"I'm just going to borrow your son for an hour or so, okay?!" Brandon shouted without volume control one last time, before taking the disgusted groan as the 'okay' and leading Mathias outdoors. "They say eight hours is healthy! Make sure you store up on sleep before your next shift!"

The sun was hidden behind plentiful clouds today, so Mathias let out a quiet sigh of relief the minute his foot landed outside. If he and Brandon did wind up spending an hour around town, he wouldn't have to awkwardly explain unceremoniously catching fire.

Willow Creek was peaceful as ever from what Mathias could tell. Across the street there was a vendor shouting out advertisements for a cool drink to beat the heat, sims passed by either on their morning jog or on a bike to get some extra wind in their face. It even looked like Brandon took notice of this scenery, eyebrows knitting as he clearly struggled to think of how to say what he intended.

"Like I said: I can't stand giving gossipers the time of the day, but from what information I've collected-"

Mathias held up his hand at that point, confusion overtaking his face. "Brandon, how are you collecting information?"

Brandon failed to notice the confusion, evident in his proud smile. "Hey, I knew back in high school I could be a kickass secret agent someday." As quick as the smile was formed, it disappeared to be replaced with rare grimness. "Well, I actually heard about the news a week before it happened; there's some new people moving in. Family of two, apparently. No kids. But they chose that old creepy two story house next to the Pancakes residence."

Mathias held out his hand, encouraging Brandon to proceed. He didn't. And it only left him more puzzled than before, although normal logical leaps weren't Brandon's style being so serious about new faces in the neighborhood was too weird for him.

Brandon threw out his pointer finger to right, at the large house that anyone with immortality would say had been there since before they were born. And as far as Mathias knew, no family who moved in there were willing to stay beyond a week. Hell, the outside appearance of it screamed haunted house.

The house was, as Brandon commented on, two stories high which was obvious enough from the outside. It was a big rectangle, with a small fenced area on its left side that was only accessible due to the side door leading in. And of course there had to be a very dirty fountain in said yard, anything else wasn't possible to see because of the tall wooden fence. Even if it weren't for the dirty fountain that long lost a water supply, the building's windows were covered in some both spiderwebs and vines. How the vines had gotten there, Mathias didn't want to understand.

Brandon must have read his mind, not just as a couple thing but because he thought what he had about the house.

"Why would just two sims move into a big place like that?" Brandon asked, adding a touch of mystery to his voice. "You think they could really fix it up that it's safe to raise kids?"

"It's their life, Brandon." Mathias said quickly, catching the gleam in his boyfriend's eyes. "Come on, let's... Let's not bother-"

"Bet we could make them talk if we give the traditional Willow Creek welcome."

"Right. Gather everyone we know to crowd around their front door with a fruitcake?"

"There's worse ways to make a first impression."

Mathias clicked his tongue, looking over his shoulder at the house again. Ever since he started having about it as a kid, he had been trying to forget it existed. It was difficult to completely erase its existence from his vision, but at least so far he didn't think of being dragged into a grave by malicious ghosts and buried for the rest of time.

Then he looked back to Brandon, and he was trying to be cute by removing his glasses and opening his eyes wide like an innocent little puppy... Too bad it just made him look moderately insane.

Mathias let out a sigh that felt like it traveled all the way from his toes. He had a feeling his opinion wasn't going to change anything. But Brandon didn't know about his old fear of that house, nor did he seem afraid of anything. It would be great to live fearlessly like him, but Mathias preferred caution.

"I'll...think about it." Mathias relented. Tension weighed his shoulders, but Brandon rushing forward and planting a grateful kiss on his lips managed to fend it off. For the time being.

In the corner of Mathias' eyes, he could see a taxi stop at the house. No moving truck. The new residents' furniture and various other belongings must have been moved in already. He pointed Brandon to the direction of the house as well, just in time to see two figures step out.

One was a tall and slim fair-skinned man. He had fiery red hair that reached his neck, underneath a brown fedora of all the hats in the world. He wore silver glasses, but it was hard to tell his eye color from far away. To make up for his choice in hats, he wore what had to be a moderately expensive beige suit and brown shoes ready for the office.

The other sim was also tall and slim, a dark-skinned woman. Her long brown hair was braided behind her back in a style that Brandon thought out loud looked like it was inspired from an epic fantasy movie he watched once. Again it was too far to see the color of her eyes. But just like her roommate/boyfriend/husband, she dressed impressively in a short, long-sleeved pink dress with black tights and heeled shoes.

Brandon was already on the path to the little food cart nearby, while Mathias' feet practically fused with the sidewalk. He knew he must have looked like a freak, but his eyes were transfixed on those two. It would only be the neighborly thing... Rescuing them from vengeful spirits still lurking in the house.

He tried to tell himself nothing was wrong, but it was difficult to believe it. What, with the faded cloud of red mist Mathias swore he saw become the image of a sim in one of the front windows.

TBC